IAFF Health And Safety Symposium Opens In San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- Monday marked the start of The International
Association of Fire Fighters' 17th Symposium on the
Occupational Health and Hazards of the Fire Service.

The Redmond Symposium, running in San Francisco from
Oct 6-9, opened with a plenary session covering topics
from new technology to firefighter medical standards
and the health effects of 9-11.

"During the next few days we need to re-dedicate
ourselves to making firefighting as safe as possible,"
said IAFF General President Harold A. Schaitberger.
"The loss of life should not just be accepted as part
of the job."

Schaitberger spoke of developing new tactics for
facing health hazards including Hepatitis, post
traumatic stress, and new threats such as SARS. He
called for firefighters to push their federal
governments for funding and information, and to make
sure they follow through. "The fact is that we have no
other choice. The stakes are just too high," he said.

Schaitberger also asked that union members be
proactive and make sure they are doing all they can
for health and safety. "We owe it to every one of our
brothers and sisters who went to work and never came
home," he said.

IAFF leadership also called for all conference
attendees to join in a march and rally later Monday
against California's recall election.

Additional welcoming remarks came from San Francisco
Fire Fighters Local 798 President John Haney, San
Francisco Fire Chief Mario Trevino, and most notably,
San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

Brown's appearance was a major highlight of Monday's
session as he joked with the crowd and spoke fondly of
his city and its diverse population. "For some of us
it's as close as we'll ever get to heaven," he said.

The day's keynote address was presented by General
Dennis J. Reimer, director of the National Memorial
Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, in Oklahoma
City. Reimer spoke of the institute's efforts to help
responders share lessons learned from previous
terrorist incidents, as well as a project to provide
responders with a sort of consumer reports for current
and emerging rescue technology.

Reimer then turned the talk over to Donald Hewitt,
Program Manager for the Terrorism Research Center in
Burke, Virginia. Hewitt explained that the
organizations are creating a web site that will
include product information, any verified testing and
standards information, explain the training required
for the technology, discuss how to pay for it, and
provide feedback from others who have used it.

Hewitt said they are looking for help from
manufacturers, standards organizations, testers and
users to provide the information, and asked that
people take a look at their web site and give
feedback. The site is expected to launch on Oct 31 at
www.rkb.mipt.org. In the meantime, viewers can access
a demo web site at www.rkb.wdl.csc.com.

IAFF Assistant to the General
President Richard M. Duffy highlighted the IAFF's
efforts over the past two years, including their
assistance to FDNY after 9/11, legislative efforts
such as increasing the PSOB, the IAFF's response to
recent biohazards such as anthrax, smallpox and SARS,
and work on the SAFER Bill, which is expected to fund
an additional 75,000 firefighters, he said.

The IAFF also outlined their Frontline Policy, a new
plan to make legal representation available when
firefighters suffer death or injury as a result of
defective equipment or another party's negligence.

Later in the the session the discussion was led by
several medical experts.

Dr. Sandy Bogucki, medical director for the New Haven
FD and the Connecticut Fire Academy, discussed the
updated NFPA 1582. She said it now calls for a yearly
medical evaluation for all firefighters, and requires
that the evaluations look for conditions for which
firefighters are at increased risk.

"It went from a tool to disqualify people to a
standard whose mission is to take care of the nation's
fire service," she said.

Finally, the session turned to the Health Effects of
9-11. David Prezant, Deputy Chief Medical Officer for
FDNY, discussed his study and treatment of FDNY
firefighters who worked at Ground Zero.

"This is about the 11,000 FDNY firefighters who
survived," he said. Prezant said all of the
firefighters got medicals which were compared to prior
medical data collected for the IAFF's Wellness and
Fitness Program. Prezant created a chart of pulmonary
function using the two sets of data which showed a
substantial drop after 9/11, of about 10 times the
amount that would have been normal due to aging.

The doctor said he is seeing career threatening asthma
and "World Trade Center cough," and showed photos of
particles of asbestos, glass and concrete removed from
a firefighter's lungs.

Prezant shared one story a patient told him, about how
he used to love watching his little boy play
firefighter and imitate him. "But now he's imitating
my cough," the patient said, and pretending to cough
uncontrollably and fall down. "I felt like a sick old
man, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry," the
patient told him.

Prezant said some firefighters are experiencing a loss
of physical abilities, and they worry about a
shortened lifespan, or families that don't understand
why they can't move on. He stressed the importance of
ongoing treatment, counseling and long term medical
monitoring.

"We cannot travel back in time to prevent 9/11, the
explosions that have already occurred. But we can work
to restore the health of those that did survive," he
said. "The terrorists didn't know they were attacking
the strongest people on earth - firefighters."